Hemp

USDA RELEASES DRAFT RULES FOR HEMP FARMING AND PRODUCTION, SETS 60- DAY WINDOW FOR PUBLIC COMMENT

By Shuki Greer, Esq.

Starting with the 2014 Farm Bill, and continuing with the 2018 Farm Bill, we have seen a dramatic shift in the landscape governing hemp. Prior to 5 years ago, hemp production was entirely illegal, as the Federal government handled industrial hemp the same as it handled high-THC marijuana. It was an established Schedule 1 controlled substance, entirely illegal to grow, harvest, or possess.

As awareness has grown, and the true benefits of the hemp plant have become more widely understood, the federal government has passed legislation to decriminalize hemp. However, although it is no longer considered a controlled substance, the questions about the process and regulatory requirements abound. This is because all plants grown in the United States are highly regulated by the United States Department of Agriculture, or the USDA, which has a complex framework of licensing, reporting, and general requirements for every specific product grown in the country.

Last week, the USDA published the draft of its regulations for the hemp industry. Since the 2018 farm bill, we have been living in the “wild west” for hemp. As promised, the USDA released its rules in time for farmers to get legal and licensed for the 2020 season. However, this long-awaited release has been met with mixed results.

Many lawmakers and industry leaders are happy that the federal government has finally put out regulations for hemp. First, they see this as a dramatic shift from the era of prohibition, alone a cause for celebration. Others see the certainty that we are going to have regulations put in place means that the industry will start to grow and develop at a much faster pace.  It is certainly true that the future is extremely bright for hemp. But other farmers and individuals have expressed concerns with some of the regulation’s details.

The “0.3% THC” limit, which delineates the difference between legal “hemp” and illegal “marijuana”, may be too stringent for some growers. They report that a mature hemp plant will have a THC content that will vary from day to day, including some spikes over the 0.3% limit. The new regulations require strict testing to be done prior to harvest, and if the resulting THC content is too high, the entire crop must be destroyed. This may cause farmers to harvest before true maturity, leading to a decrease in the potency or effectiveness of the CBD derived from such a harvest.

The regulations also allow the states to develop their own plans and submit them for approval. Some are concerned that some states may try to infringe on the interstate commerce occurring there, which could cause all kinds of problems and complications for the industry. Still others are worried that the method for disposing of “hot crops” requires just a little too much DEA involvement, which could also cause disruption or have a chilling effect on growth.

It is clear that these regulations are a good step in the right direction. It’s also clear that this is just the beginning, and there is still plenty of room for improvement. The USDA announced a 60-day window for submitting public comments, and then they will consider any suggestions, and then publish a final rule in the future. I encourage you to read the regulations or a summary of them. I encourage you to think about how you would be affected by these rules, and what suggestions you may have. Speak to an expert about how you can do your part to improve the landscape of the industry for the future.

Submit public comments here:

https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=AMS_FRDOC_0001-1919

To explore related information, click the keywords below:

Benjamin Caplan, MDUSDA RELEASES DRAFT RULES FOR HEMP FARMING AND PRODUCTION, SETS 60- DAY WINDOW FOR PUBLIC COMMENT
read more

New Developments of Cannabinoid-Based Drugs

Title: Novel approaches in clinical development of cannabinoid drugs

A pamphlet has recently been published that highlights new approaches in the clinical development of cannabinoid-based therapies. The pamphlet begins with a look into how current cannabinoids affect patients based on gender, stress, physiological variations, and also delves into how cannabis works on the body in general.

A novel therapy that features an oral version of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and a synthetic activator of cannabinoid-receptor-1 (CB1) is explored in this piece and frames it to be a promising future therapy. The pharmacological properties of these two novel therapies were optimized during development after various analysis techniques, forming medications that the authors hope to see in future clinical trials. 

Although the authors remain hopeful that their cannabis-based therapies will reach clinical trials soon, trials featuring cannabinoids are difficult to test in a formal setting because of a dire lack of funding. The federal government still lists cannabis as a Schedule I substance, under the Controlled Substances Act, meaning that the federal government does not support the idea that cannabis has any medical use. Considering the legal status of cannabis, only privately-funded studies are able to take place, and unfortunately, that leaves cannabis research in an area of complete bias and prohibitively underfunded. Considering the massive literature supporting a myriad of novel therapeutic benefits, this is a costly reality to the health and well-being of millions.


View this review (yellow link) or download:

This paper is also stored here:    http://bit.ly/2K7bbVX     inside the CED Foundation Archive

To explore related information, click the keywords below:

Benjamin Caplan, MDNew Developments of Cannabinoid-Based Drugs
read more

Nutritional Supplements Modulate Cannabinoid Content

Title: Impact of N, P, K and humic acids supplementation on the chemical profile of medical cannabis (Cannabis sativa L)

A recent study has come out revealing the effects of nutritional supplements (plant food) on cannabinoid content during the growth of the cannabis plant.

Researchers enhanced nutritional supplements such as humic acids and inorganic nitrogen and potassium and determined that the changes in supplement levels caused variations in the cannabinoid content of the plant organs. This research has demonstrated that maintaining specific nutritional supplements effects the chemical properties of cannabis plants and may play a role in standardizing the cannabinoid content in plants, no matter the region of growth. This knowledge may one day help cultivators with the process of standardizing cultivars, and perhaps help organize strain names and content across state lines.

This work spotlights the inconsistency between cannabis plants, even if they share the same name. The nutrients cannabis plants grow in have been proven to alter the cannabinoid content which changes (sometimes drastically) the effects felt by patients who consume that plant. Growers or enthusiasts who grow cannabis at home may be buying seeds from a known strain, but the same seeds produce a completely different strain, depending on the growing conditions. Standardizing growth conditions will hopefully help cultivators produce strains of the same name with consistent cannabinoid content, making buying safer and somewhat more uniformly regulatable. 

Tweet: A recent study has come out revealing the effects of #nutritional supplements on #cannabinoid content during #cannabis plant growth. Read this and other linked studies:

View this review (yellow link) or download:

This paper is also stored here:      http://bit.ly/2SigULd   inside the CED Foundation Archive

To explore related information, click the keywords below:

Benjamin Caplan, MDNutritional Supplements Modulate Cannabinoid Content
read more